PLUS (PT)

NOVA"Crash of Flight 447"
A team of seasoned pilots, engineers and safety experts examine the evidence that emerges in the weeks following the disappearance of the Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight that flew straight into a towering thunderstorm. Expert testimony, messages from the plane's computer system, CGI weather reconstructions and an airbus simulator provides a forensic view of events.G

10:00 pm

Space Age: Nasa's Story"Tragedy"
The white knuckle suspense thriller of Apollo 13's famous near-disaster is only a prelude to darker moments ahead. After the Shuttle Challenger disaster, all missions are halted with NASA's future in question. But the shuttle returns for 15 years of successful missions before disaster recurs with the loss of Columbia.G

11:00 pm

Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers"The Intimate Machine"
They're called personal computers, but human interactions with them are utterly impersonal, via keyboard and mouse. Alan Alda gets to communicate with computers that know who he is, where he is, what he' s doing and even how he's feeling. The ultimate such computer - actually a cute and cuddly robot - is being developed in a unique collaboration between Hollywood and MIT. D